A Stark Divide
by Cyclone
Summary: Summer Rose was indomitable. Raven Branwen was unstoppable. When they stood together, nothing could stand in their way. Nothing, that is, except the truth. A RWBY tragedy in three parts.
1. Chapter 1

**A Stark Divide: Act I: Wings**

* * *

An ear-splitting cry split the quiet Patch night air. The noise came from a room inside a two-storey house made of logs. To those inside, it was not entirely unexpected, but still unwelcome.

"I'll get it," said the woman in the bed with a wild mass of black hair coming off her head even as she got out of bed.

"Ugh, remember when…" - the blond man in the bed squinted at the bedside clock - "nine thirty-seven wasn't late at night?"

"If it bothers you so much, Tai, you can always go back to bed," the woman suggested with a laugh as she walked to the crib near the window.

"Well, Raven, maybe I just want to feel useful," said Tai even as he knew that she wasn't listening any more. She was too focused on what was in the crib.

In the crib was a small swaddled baby, no more than two weeks old. She had blond hair like her father, though her mother suspected that her face would grow up much like hers. She also had lilac eyes just like her grandmother, but those were hidden behind shut eyelids and a screaming mouth.

"Hey, hey, momma's here, little one," Raven whispered as reached down and picked up the baby to hold her against her breast. "Momma's here, Yang."

Yang punched her mother's chest, and Raven let out a melodious chuckle. "You got an arm on you, don't ya? You're going to grow up big and strong, just like me."

A dark thought, venomous and terrible like a viper, slithered into her mind. The image of Yang as an adult, standing with a Grimm mask over her face, red sword in hand, reared its ugly head. Then her daughter hit her again, and the thoughts were banished, slinking back into the underbrush to pursue some other prey.

"Oh, all right," Raven said cheerily as she deftly undid one side of her sleeping yukata. "You know, if you keep eating these, you're going to turn into one yourself."

Taiyang snorted even as he looked on his daughter going about her business.

"Something funny?" Raven asked happily.

"No," Taiyang admitted with his own smile. "That was a terrible joke, and it made no sense."

"Jerk," Raven scoffed, though her expression didn't change.

"Sorry," Taiyang placated. "I should know better than to challenge you on your uproarious sense of humor."

"Darn right," replied Raven. "Got something more to say though?"

"Just…" Taiyang paused. "Just that I don't think I've ever seen you so happy."

Raven paused, considering his words carefully. "I think you're right. I mean, there was this one time, before we met, but… well, it's complicated. This isn't."

"No, but somehow, I know you're already working on a solution to the complicated bits," Taiyang said softly. At her surprised expression, he continued, "You're a lot smarter than you give yourself credit for. I'm sure whatever this issue is, you'll solve it. You wouldn't be my hero otherwise."

Raven blushed scarlet. She was about to say something when Yang finished her business. Instead, she shifted tactics and began to hum and sing quietly.

And as she sang, her mind flowed with endless possibilities for the future, both good and bad. She saw her darling daughter growing up, meeting new friends and having a family of her own. She'd have a nice husband, and they'd think the world of each other, and they'd have many children. She'd grow old then, and all her children would have children of their own as well, who would then bear their own, and eventually, she would die, surrounded by a big family that loved and adored her… and the whole time, she would be fighting the Grimm and the other agents of Salem. She would never lay aside her arms until the day she died.

Salem, the dark lady. The fool who, in her spite and wickedness, sought dominion over the world for her own twisted ends. The great enemy opposed by Raven, and Tai, and her brother Qrow, and their champion Summer Rose, and all the others brought together in the many lives of the wizard known as Ozpin. Yang would fight her, just as Raven had fought her, and as countless women who had come before had faced her.

She… no, Yang deserved better than that. They all deserved better than that. Salem must be destroyed, no matter the cost.

"Hey, Tai," Raven broke the comfortable silence that had followed her lullaby.

"Yeah?"

"You want to hold her?"

"Of course," he said, holding his hands out eagerly. As he took Yang into his arms, she helped adjust his grip. "What brought this about?"

"I just realized," she said with a shrug. "You'll need to be able to take care of her. I won't always be around, after all."

He cocked an eyebrow. "Planning something?"

"Nah," she denied, shaking her head. "Just… thinking about the future. We're still Huntsmen, after all. We'll still have missions, and you _know_ me, Tai. Could you _really_ see me as the stay-at-home type?"

"Too true," he chuckled. "You'd go stir-crazy within a month."

"I'm sure I could make it to two," she argued, a small smile on her face.

"Six weeks at best," Tai countered.

"Hey!"

God of Light, she wouldn't give this up for the world.

* * *

"Summer... Summer... Summer!"

"Hmmwha?" The Huntress blinked blearily and squinted at the figure standing over her bed. That mass of black hair was unmistakable. "Raven? Wha'ss goin' on?"

"Wake up, Huntress. We've got a world to save," Raven replied with the seriousness of the grave.

_That_ got Summer Rose's attention, and she found herself leaping out of her sleeping position, wide awake and searching for her clothes. "What's wrong?" she asked desperately. "Did something go wrong with Professor Ozpin's trip to Haven?"

"Not if we do our job right," said Raven evenly. "If we do this right, he won't even know we were there."

Summer paused and turned to look at her teammate oddly, peering out from under the hood she'd just donned. "What are you planning, Rae?"

"I told you," Raven replied. "We're going to save the world."

"From Haven?" Summer asked, raising a curious eyebrow.

"You'll see. Trust me."

Summer smiled. "Always."

* * *

A swirling red and black portal opened up just outside the central building of Haven Academy. Out from it flew a black raven with beady red eyes. After the bird came the still very human Summer Rose.

She dropped for but a moment, eyes wide with panic, and then brought out a grappling hook to catch the nearby cliff wall with practiced ease. She then held out her legs and braced herself as she slammed into the stony cliff face. When she had come to a stop and was hanging on the edge, she turned to glare at the black bird perched on an errant root.

"Couldn't you have portaled us _inside_ the building?" she demanded hotly.

The raven tilted her head to the side curiously.

"I don't care if my landing strategy was on point! It shouldn't have been necessary!"

The raven gave her a beady-eyed stare, then pecked downward at the air with her beak. Summer looked down.

"Oh."

Three feet below her, a narrow, stone ledge jutted out of the cliffside, barely a foot and a half wide. She let herself drop, landing lightly.

"You had no idea that was there, did you?" she accused as she shook her grappling loose and began tucking it away.

The raven innocently fluffed her wings in reply before joining her on the ledge and reverting back into her teammate in the blink of an eye. "My range is limited," she reminded her, "and this was the only place within range that wasn't in plain view, so unless you _wanted_ us to appear right in front of Ozpin…"

"You could have mentioned it earlier," Summer grumbled. "We've talked about this whole communication thing before."

"Yeah, yeah," Raven waved it off. "So, Headmaster Boq keeps the elevator key in a safe hidden in his office."

Summer squinted at her teammate suspiciously. "How do you know that?"

Raven met her gaze but didn't deign to answer.

_So, cool!_ Summer cheered in her head.

"His office, which is," she flicked her eyes up, "right up there?"

"Exactly."

Summer sighed and pulled her grappling hook back out, only to stop when Raven grabbed her wrist. She looked up, and the other woman shook her head. "It'll dig in, leave marks. I'll scout it out, and once it's clear, I'll lower a rope."

"R-right, of course," Summer agreed. Of course Raven would know how best to do this. She hadn't even thought about the damage her grappling hook would do. _Stupid,_ she scolded herself.

It took several minutes, but soon enough, she was clambering up a rope and through the window, only to see Raven growing frustrated as she fiddled with the safe.

"Here," Summer said, "let me."

Raven blinked and stepped aside, raising an eyebrow. The other eyebrow went up when Summer twirled the dial back and forth, unlocking the safe.

"How did you-?"

"I've been to the vault before," Summer said with a shrug. "I saw Headmaster Boq open the safe and remembered the combination."

Raven smiled and shook her head. "You continue to impress, Sumshine," she said, reaching into the safe for the key. "Now, how do we get to the elevator without being seen?"

"Why are you asking me?"

Raven gave her an odd look. "You're the one with the plans, team leader. Why do you think I brought you along?" Summer raised an eyebrow, and Raven rolled her eyes in response. "Well, yes, that too, but you know me. My plans tend to involve headlong charges through whatever's in the way."

Okay, Summer had to admit, she did have a point. Raven Branwen was many things; "subtle" was _not_ one of them.

Still…

"You got us this far," she pointed out.

Raven waved it off. "Sneaking into a room that might have, _maybe_, three people in it at any given time is one thing. Sneaking up to an elevator in plain sight in the middle of hundreds of people?"

"What did you do when you had to do that back with… err…"

"I usually just killed them all," Raven said bluntly.

"Right," Summer agreed. "Yeah, let's _not_ do that. Hmm." She began tapping her lower lip thoughtfully, then snapped her fingers. "We need to find the chemistry lab."

* * *

The alarm klaxons echoed throughout Haven Academy, providing a rhythmic undertone to the seeming chaos spread throughout the facility. The entire complex was being evacuated, with every man, woman, and student making their way out. The procedures for evacuating a Huntsman academy were quite simple: find your team, find a way out, don't die.

And if, in the confusion, a couple of students got turned around… well, everyone had their own exit strategy.

"And just like that, we're in like Flynn," Summer said with a smile as she and Raven hid in a broom closet and waited for everyone to get out.

"What?" asked Raven, confused.

"You know, 'in like Flynn,'" Summer replied with a jovial smile.

Raven just raised a black, questioning eyebrow, and Summer's smile dropped as she wilted slightly.

"Odd girl," Raven deadpanned.

Summer let out a sigh. "Never mind. Anyway, it sounds like they're evacuated, so we should get this done as fast as we can. It won't take them long to notice the fakery."

As the pair went out into the hallway, Raven couldn't help but give a smug smirk. "Don't worry. I made sure to give us a little extra time."

There was a loud cracking boom, and the whole building shook under the force of it. They were both thrown to the ground, and Summer looked back to see flames of many strange colors eating through the floors. The sprinkler system that was activating seemed completely ineffectual against the blaze.

As they got back to their feet, the leader of Team STRQ looked in horror at her teammate, who shrugged. "What?" Raven asked. "If there isn't an actual chemical accident, they'd find out the alarm was fake after the fact."

Summer fumed. This was- this was _unacceptable!_ Okay, granted, Raven did have a point about the impending future discovery of their shenanigans, but... "Communication!" she scolded, jabbing an accusatory finger at Raven.

"Let's go," Raven said, turning and striding toward the hidden elevator in the front hall. Summer sighed, wishing she could move with that sort of... unconscious self-confidence. Then she squawked and sprinted to catch up.

The halls were empty as they moved through them, exactly as planned. It wasn't precisely what Summer had hoped for, but things were going well enough. Well, just as long as they didn't get caught.

Raven had already unlocked the elevator by the time Summer arrived. It was a platform on top of a statue of a naked woman draped in chains, and the key was a pocket watch inserted into a special slot on the statue's belt. An odd security system for an odd elevator, but effective nonetheless.

Her heart was troubled, but as she looked upon her friend, those troubles were burned away. This was important, and she had Raven Branwen with her: strong, daring, unstoppable Raven Branwen, quick of wit and quick of blade. There was nothing that could stand against her, and as long as they stood close, Summer felt there was nothing that could stand against her either.

United, they could take on the whole world.

The elevator descended. Down, down, down it went into the perilous depths beneath Haven Academy. The descent was long and silent.

In due time, they reached the bottom and stood in a room that defied all imagination. A bridge spanned from the elevator cage high across a deep subterranean lake to a door that seemed to have been crafted from golden flower iconography set into a giant pillar of stone, upon whose top a massive tree was perched, and lo, the room was lit by luminescent leaves that fell continuously and eternally from the tree. It was a magical place, a sacred place, a holy place, a place neither of them were meant to be in before the appointed time.

They stepped forward, and as though crossing a threshold, Summer felt a significance to that first step off the elevator. They'd gone this far, they'd passed the point of no return long ago, but for some reason, stepping off the elevator felt more… final.

"It's like we're on another world," Summer murmured.

"Hey," Raven said softly, bringing her leader's attention to her and her stalwart - and oddly reassuring - expression, "as long as you're with me, we're getting home."

Summer returned the smile as best she could and walked forward to meet her friend. She steeled herself along the way, and when she passed Raven, the black-maned woman fell in behind her. This was it. Whatever else may come, they would face it. Together.

She reached the door, and stretching out one thin hand, she touched the golden surface. Almost instantly, the reliefs on the portal began to glow, spinning outwards to fill their grand designs. Then, with a loud series of clanks, the petals of the flower designs began to collapse to their side, revealing the impossible desert landscape beyond.

Summer turned back to face Raven. There was a heroic smile upon her lips, and from her silver eyes sprouted two short and horizontal ethereal flames, red like the wings of a hawk, the sign of a power from myth and legend, a fragment of long lost glories from Remnant's shrouded past. One of the four Maidens of the four seasons, blessed with mighty magic that would pass to another upon death, Summer Rose drew back her hood to reveal herself in her full glory.

The Spring Maiden had opened the Gate of Knowledge.

Raven held her breath, awestruck and filled with wonder beyond wonder.

"Come now, Raven," said Summer as she held out an open palm, the fiery wings still coming from her eyes. "Let's do this. Together."

With a shaky hand, Raven laid her fate in her friend's grip, and the two ventured over the threshold into the sandy dreamworld beyond. With strong and confident strides, they walked the steps of power and magic. It was but a few yards to their goal.

An ornate lantern of blue crystal enshrined in gold hung in the air, suspended by nothing. It was bright and illuminated by sunlight from a cloudless sky. It was something beyond them, beyond any of them but the divine being who had crafted it.

Summer reached forth once more, and she took hold of the golden hoop that served as the relic's carrying handle. It felt odd in her hands. Physically, it was weightless, but there was a power within it that made it the heaviest object that she had ever held.

"Do you still remember the words?" asked Raven.

The leader of Team STRQ nodded, and then, in a cold clear voice, spoke those words of power.

"Jinn, I, Summer Rose, Maiden of Spring, do call you forth."

Time stopped. Motes of dust froze in the air, and yet, Raven and Summer both found themselves still able to move. The relic floated out of Summer's hand on its own accord, cyan smoke emerging from it, some distance away. Yet another impossibility in an impossible realm.

In gaseous form appeared, naked and yet not obscene, a woman of great size and noble stature. She had blue skin, long pointed ears, and blue eyes. Bound and yet unbound in golden chains was she, and her expression was fae-like.

She spoke, and her voice was like the philosophers of old forgotten days. "Tell me, what knowledge do you seek?"

Raven looked at Summer, who shrugged and waved her forward. This was her show.

With a nod to Summer, Raven stepped forward to address Jinn. "How do we kill Salem?"

Jinn appeared to swoop down, until she seemed to be floating on her stomach, hands clasped and her chin resting on her fingers. "What a curious question, a _familiar_ question. Are you sure you want me to give you an answer I already gave your master?"

Raven's eyes narrowed. "You mean Ozpin."

"Oh!" Summer said happily. Maybe this was all for nothing. Well, maybe not nothing. They at least got some infiltration practice in. "Well, I guess we can just ask-"

"Ozpin," Raven repeated. She looked up at Jinn. "What's he hiding from us?"

The fae creature smiled.

"Once upon a time... there stood a lonely tower... that sheltered a lonely girl named... Salem."

* * *

Each clunk of the vault door closing was like an artillery bombardment in Raven's mind. She felt… dead, empty, hopeless. She could barely breathe or move, not because of any outside pressure, but because she had lost the will for either. Instead, on automatic, she just walked numbly to the elevator behind Summer.

Summer.

Even Summer - the ever indomitable and irrepressible Summer - had been sobered by what they'd just learned. If even she had been affected in such a way, what hope did Raven have? There was no way she was as strong as her. There was no way any of them could measure up to her, so if _she_ had lost heart…

Summer inhaled, and then softly exhaled, and with that, she stood straighter and more fair than Raven had ever seen her. "Okay. That wasn't what we were hoping for, but I think we can work with this."

Raven's head snapped up. "We can? _How?_" she demanded. "We've been recruited into an impossible war against an unkillable enemy by a man who's been _lying_ to us from the very beginning!"

"Lies or not, now we know the truth," Summer reminded her. "Now we know everything he's been hiding from us. That's what you asked Jinn, after all. Which means he has no more secrets. Besides..." she looked down sadly, "...how can you see that and not see how much pain they were in?"

Raven scoffed. "All I saw was a pathetic old man drowning himself in a bottle. Even Qrow has enough sense to not drink his wits away." At that, a pronoun registered. "Wait, are you telling me you're feeling _sorry_ for _Salem?_"

"How would you feel if Tai died?" Summer asked softly. "What would you do to bring him back?"

"I-..." Raven bit off her reply, then shook her head. "Doesn't matter. That. Doesn't. Matter. That doesn't change what we're up against. We can't beat that!"

"You never know until you try."

There was that boundless optimism again.

"How do we beat someone who can't be killed?" Raven persisted.

"We'll figure it out," Summer assured her. "Together."

"You don't have a clue, do you?"

"Not _yet_," Summer corrected, her face carved in determination.

_So much faith…_ Raven thought enviously as the elevator reached its destination. _Faith in a world without even any gods to pray to._ She was lost in thought as she trailed after Summer toward the headmaster's office.

She wanted to run. No, scratch that. She wanted to go home, grab her husband and daughter, and _then_ run. Well, maybe her brother too, while she was at it.

And Summer… she wanted to keep fighting. No, more than that. Summer seemed almost… revitalized by the sheer scale of the task facing them.

"We should leave," Raven said as she closed the door to the headmaster's office behind them.

"Sure," Summer said as she slid the key back into the safe.

"No," Raven said, shaking her head. "I don't mean here. I mean… go home, grab Tai and Qrow and Yang and _leave_ this impossible fight behind. Remnant's a big place, and I want no part of Ozpin's private little… _marriage dispute_."

Summer closed the safe and stood still for a long moment. The chemical alarm was still blaring, but neither was paying any attention to it.

_She's thinking,_ Raven realized. Hope sprang. _Maybe she'll listen to reason?_

Strange as it may seem, Summer was her best friend. She didn't- she didn't want her to die either.

Summer turned and looked up at her, a fire in her eyes that had nothing to do with the Spring Maiden powers.

"Thousands - no, _millions_ \- of lives are at stake in this 'marriage dispute,'" Summer said. "I don't know if I could just stand by when I could do something about it, could you?"

_Yes, I could. Easily,_ Raven thought. _I'm not like you._

"You, Raven," Summer said, "you are so much stronger than me."

_Liar._

"But..." Summer said, "this is- this is too big a decision for you, for either of us. We should talk to Tai and Qrow, see what they say. If the team decides to leave, then… then I'll go too. I'm with you 'til the end of the line."

Raven froze at that. Convince Tai and Qrow? Could she do it? Qrow, probably. He liked to say that this whole crusade was the best thing to happen to him, but if he knew the truth…

As for Tai? This was beyond couch threats, but if he understood the scale of what they were facing, the risk that would fall on _Yang_ just by proximity…

She looked at Summer, the hooded girl with squared shoulders and fiery determination in her eyes. Honestly, the girl should have looked ridiculous, but…

_But maybe- maybe we don't have to run,_ Raven thought, a warm fire of hope slowly being stoked. _Maybe we can beat this._

She blinked and shook her head. Hope was a drug. It was _dangerous_, and Raven didn't realize just _how_ dangerous until just now. And Summer practically _radiated_ it.

Fear clawed at her heart. Fear of the unstoppable Salem, yes, but also, paradoxically, fear of hope. And worse, she knew how Tai and Qrow would react. She'd reason with them, she'd beg them, she'd plead with them... but all Summer would have to do is smile at them like she was smiling at her now.

"Now," Summer said. "Let's go home."

"Yes." Raven nodded. "Home."

_Patch isn't home anymore,_ she thought sadly. _It can't be. I'm sorry._

She slashed a portal, anchoring it on the most important person in her life, and waved her team leader on through.

Summer stepped through, taking a moment to inhale the night air of Patch. She looked over her shoulder at the portal, waiting for Raven to follow… only to frown as the portal vanished.

"What-? Raven?" she called out, confused.

_No, no no no!_ she thought. _I thought I'd convinced her to come back! At least to talk to them! Why?!_

"But… communication…" was all she could say to the empty backyard as she sank to her knees.

* * *

Taiyang paced back and forth in the living room of his Patch home. Summer looked up at him with both worry and shame. Yang slept peacefully in the maiden's arms, snuggled against her shoulder.

Summer felt her heart breaking anew as she watched Tai. Sweet, lovable Tai. He deserved far better than this. He deserved so much more than this.

The relative calm was broken by a knocking at the door. Tai stopped pacing long enough to open it, and through the doorway stepped Qrow Branwen. He did not look happy.

"Well, did you find her? What happened?" asked Tai worriedly. "Is she in trouble? How fast do you think we can-"

"Tai," Qrow interrupted before pulling out a flask and taking an unusually long pull from it, "she's fine. But she's not coming back."

"Qrow, it's not even nine in the morning yet, and what do you mean 'she's not coming back'?" inquired Tai forcefully.

"I mean. She's not. Coming. Back," Qrow enunciated, slamming the door behind him. "She went back to the tribe."

"What?" said Tai flatly. "That doesn't make any sense. Did she say why?"

"Tai, this is Raven we're talking about. Of course she said why, but it was all a bunch of nonsense. I asked her for the real reason, and she just gave some garbage about going back to her 'real' family," Qrow said before sipping from the flask again. "If I ever find out the real reason why, I'll let you know."

"This doesn't make any sense," Tai repeated, and then he turned to his team leader. "Summer, you were the last one to see her, do you have any idea why she's doing this?"

Absent-mindedly stroking little Yang's hair, Summer felt her teeth chattering softly, and there were tears in her eyes. "No," she moaned. "I really don't."

* * *

A/N: This story is actually a co-authored project with Cody MacArthur Fett.


	2. Chapter 2

**A Stark Divide: Act II: All Our Days**

* * *

The bellowing of a demented elephant's trumpet boomed above the din of battle, drowning out the cries of panic that only drew in more of the fell beasts. In terrible answer, more blasts from their fellows echoed the dark news.

The Branwen Tribe was at its end.

Raven's odachi slashed through Beowolf after Beowolf, and still, it wasn't enough. The Goliaths were closing in. They were trapped, encircled by the Grimm, and about to be defeated in detail. It was a nightmare scenario, and their ever growing despair only drove the Grimm to greater heights of ferocity.

All hope was lost. Death was at hand. The only thing they had left to do was meet their end swinging.

Suddenly, without warning or prelude, the land exploded with a silver light so blinding that men screamed in pain from the shock of it. The Grimm screamed louder still, though, and their deathly wails echoed long after the split second it took for them to disintegrate. Suddenly, the battlefield went eerily silent.

Raven blinked the spots from her eyes, or at least tried to. As she did so, the silence was suddenly broken by the sound of boots crushing fallen twigs beneath their soles. Those who remained turned and saw a bright hooded shape emerging from the trees.

They all stared at the figure, whose hands reached up to the hood, but Raven already knew what lay beneath. She could never forget that light.

Summer Rose stood before them, revealed for all to see. The years had, if it was at all possible, made her even more beautiful and fair. More than that, there was a glow about her that spoke of a cosmic sort of joy, and once more, those who looked upon her were uplifted. Beneath all that, though, it was clear that she was strong, stronger than she had ever been before in her life, and yet still only skimming the top of her incomprehensibly large reserves of power.

"Hi!" she said with a big wave.

Oh, and she was still just as annoyingly cheery as ever.

"Raven, who is this?" asked one of her tribesmen. In the din of battle, she could not identify him, and now, she could not tear her eyes away from the woman in front of her.

"An old friend," Raven answered simply.

"Well, whoever she is, we've been given the chance to run. Let's take it!"

The howl of another pack of Beowolves split the air, more distant but still close enough that they were all in deadly danger.

"You go," said Raven. "I'll hold them off."

The tribesman was silent for a moment ere replying, "We'll try to remember you in song."

Raven reached down into her obi and pulled out a silver flask. "You'll fail," she said before taking a long swig of burning alcohol that flowed down her throat like lava.

She had just managed to stuff the glinting container back into its hiding place when the impossibly strong warrior of legend strode up. Strong, proud, fair, noble, pure, virtuous, and all things good save tall. No, she was definitely not tall.

"Hello, Summer, what brings you out here?" asked Raven, somehow keeping the exhaustion of battle from her voice.

"I wanted to talk," answered Summer calmly, as if she _hadn't_ just obliterated hundreds of Grimm just by _glaring_ at them.

"I'm a little busy," Raven replied as she turned and walked towards the sound of the oncoming host of fell beasts.

"Okay, I'll help then. Many hands make light work, after all," said Summer as she began to walk alongside her.

"You'll do more than make it light," observed the black-haired woman.

"Sorry," reflexed the woman with hair so red and dark it was almost black. "I won't cheat this time, I promise."

Raven paused and turned to face her old friend. "I really wouldn't mind you cheating a little bit."

Summer smiled, a small but invigorating thing, and as she did, red wings of fire sprouted from her silver eyes. "Okie-dokie!"

The first head of abyssal black and bone white crested into view, and the Spring Maiden was off like a shot.

"Rosebird!" Summer shouted. Raven blinked in surprise as the team attack name registered, but she was already moving through the motions on reflex, leaping into the air to be carried by Summer's magic, accelerating her toward the Goliath that led the charge. Her odachi lashed out, with her momentum added to the blow, carving deep into the elephantine Grimm.

It was a young thing, ignorant of the world, and so it died when Summer followed up in Raven's wake, striking with her own weapon. Without a word - none were needed - the two leapfrogged past each other into the fray, greeting the Grimm in the only language they understood: death.

Raven pushed forward aggressively, her blade flashing back and forth, and soon, she overtook Summer again, who - with a sigh of resignation - fell back and began pelting the Grimm with blasts of fire and ice that arced overhead. Raven was just so much better at this, it was sometimes kind of depressing.

A shadow drew the hooded young woman's attention to the sky. "Nevermore!" she called out.

Raven actually paused and turned to look at her incredulously. "Do I _look_ like I'm made of dust here?"

"No!" Summer shook her head, and pointed up. "Nevermore!"

Raven followed her finger, and even before she saw the giant predatory bird, she was leaping high into the sky. When she had reached the level of the fearsome Grimm, she lashed out and sliced its wings off with her sword. She had barely even glanced at it, and yet, she was already tracking the next target.

"I _told_ you we shouldn't have named it that," Raven teased with an involuntary smile. It was an old jab, a familiar one. She'd almost forgotten...

_Idiot,_ Summer cursed herself. _She's right. How many years has it been, and that name is still tripping you up?_

Raven, strong and unmatched Raven, had already jumped back into the fray, but even as Summer watched her effortlessly slice through ten Beowolves in a single swing, she knew she had to do something to make up for her mistake. There were more Nevermores incoming, alongside Sphinxes, Manticores, Griffins, Ravagers, and all other manner of flying abomination.

"Lenore!" Summer called out.

Raven fell back into a defensive position, cutting through all those who would seek to harm her leader. Summer was grateful for the reprieve and set about making her plan a reality. She concentrated and tapped just that little bit deeper into her power.

The summer winds shifted. No longer were they a warm and gentle caress upon the face; now, they were a humid and unpleasant gale. The sky went dark, and the roll of thunder swept across the land. It was dark now, dim and deadly, but light still peeked out from the edges of the clouds not so far away.

The Spring Maiden opened her flaming eyes, and lightning descended from the heavens. Immediately, all those who flew were smote down by the bright bolts of jagged plasma. The sound was so tremendous and deafening that Summer could feel pebbles bouncing up against her legs from the shockwaves, and yet still, she did not stop.

Again, the flying Grimm were smited with lightning bolts, and again immediately following it. Thrice, the searing light had fired, and now those who remained fled as a glimmer of understanding overcame their bloodlust. It was not enough for the one who directed the symphony of destruction though.

The winds shifted again, and summer turned to winter. Great chunks of ice and hail fell from the sky to crash against the heads of those below, and yet still, the lightning rolled on in a staccato smashing of impossibly large drums. The snow came then, glinting in the light of the sky tearing sparks, and with them came more wind.

"Midsummer Night's Dream!" Summer called out, her voice carried by the wind of her own direction to reach her friend.

Raven took heed and readied herself. Then, impossibly, the wind picked her up as a parent might a child, and carried her aloft. The black-haired woman flew then, borne by the ephemeral wings of a friend, though she would often insist that it was more akin to being stuck in a vacuum hose.

Raven swung her odachi in precise fluid movement, and the enemies fell before her as she flew amongst their number in an ever widening spiral like an Atlesian missile. None could stand before her, and guided by the sure aim of her friend, none could avoid her. Bombarded by both the raging thunder-blizzard and the living projectile, the Grimm could bear it no longer, and they were forced to flee.

None escaped alive that day.

After the last Grimm had fallen, the sun once more broke under Summer's direction. Shining light came upon the devastated landscape, catching the ice and snow that covered the forest now. The tiny crystals glinted in the light, and lo it was a beautiful sight for those who witnessed it.

"Now that was a good work out," Raven said casually as she stretched her arms.

"We've had worse," Summer replied, trying desperately to be even half as cool as her old teammate naturally was.

Raven stood there then with the sweat of battle upon her brow, and still she cut a tall and powerful figure. Like the warrior queens of old of which songs of reverence were still sung, she seemed naturally at home in the aftermath of battle. After all the years that had passed since they had last stood together, she still had the inbred confidence that assured victory forevermore, and it was that noble smile that gave Summer strength renewed... just like the old days.

Suddenly, a frown creased Raven's lips, and she gripped her sword. No words were wasted, and she pulled the trigger set in its handle. There was the crack of a gunshot, and the odachi flew out of its scabbard at supersonic speeds. Somehow, Summer tracked it as it flew past her to hit a mid-sized Deathstalker that had remained hidden underground until the battle was over. The hilt of the odachi struck the black, scorpion-like monster between the eyes, stunning it, and sending the sword spinning into the air. Raven rushed after her weapon, caught it, and then, in a powerful and direct motion, sliced the stinging tail off.

The Deathstalker screeched in surprise, but it did not last long. The warrior woman's maneuver had taken but an instant, and now, she stood atop it. With a powerful stabbing thrust, she drove her odachi into the body of the Grimm like a carpenter drives a nail into wood. It screamed a hideous scream of passing, and then fell still.

The giant scorpion began to dissolve, and Raven spoke even as she removed her sword. "You've really got to remember to watch your back, Summer."

"I wanted to give you the chance to show off that move again," she said. _Stupid!_ she thought.

Raven couldn't help but smile. "It is pretty cool, isn't it? Now, why are you here?"

Summer could feel her mouth run dry. "I was in the area, so I came to talk."

"About what?"

"Well, about a lot of things," Summer began before looking around, "but I've got to admit that, right now, I'm just wondering how you stirred up so many Grimm."

Raven motioned for her to walk alongside her, and together the two began to follow the path that the Branwen tribe had been following. After but a few hundred feet, the taller of the two women finally answered. Before she did, she fingered the flask in her obi.

"That's a long story."

Summer shrugged. "I always have time for you, Raven. Lay it on me."

Raven was quiet for a moment, giving her old team leader a sidelong glance. There was only one reason she'd come looking for her. "Actually, come to think of it, it isn't that long. It's actually rather simple. A convoy was coming into town, we attacked them, it brought the Grimm. Turns out, they were a whole lot more interested in us than they were the town. Been running ever since."

Summer turned her head to look at her fellow, her face knotted with pity and righteous anger. "Rae, you have to give up this life. It's wrong, and evil, and it's hurting you just as much as it's hurting everyone else."

Raven lifted the flask to her lips and took a short pull. "And what else am I supposed to do? They're my family, Summer. I can't abandon them."

"We're your family too," Summer said quietly.

_And since I abandoned you…_ Raven ruthlessly squashed the thought before it could finish. "I made my choice."

"You didn't give us the chance to make ours," Summer retorted, her voice burdened heavily by negative emotion.

"I knew what your choices would all be. What point was there to sticking around?" reasoned Raven.

"Giving us a reason why you left?" Summer said, her voice hitching with emotion. "Qrow was so worried, and then so _angry_. Yang wouldn't stop crying for you. Taiyang… I've never seen him so depressed."

"And you?" asked Raven, her voice somehow empty.

"I…" Summer trailed off. "I was confused, and hurt. I tried to focus on taking care of Yang, but..." She shook her head, unable to finish.

"You know why I left, Summer," Raven said. "You were there."

"No," Summer said, shaking her head. "I don't- I don't understand!"

Raven paused, as if struck dumb. "How could you not understand?"

Summer didn't pause, and kept walking, forcing Raven to go into a slight jog to catch up. It was only when the two were once again side by side that the woman in the white cloak spoke. "I don't understand because you wouldn't have ever run from a challenge, nor break in the face of any enemy. I knew there had to be more than a simple revelation of the enemy's nature."

Summer really didn't understand. As indomitable as Summer was, how could she not understand?

Qrow, at least, understood, Raven was sure. She knew her brother well, and he would have felt the same as she had when Summer told them what they'd learned from Jinn, though perhaps less afraid and more betrayed. It said something that Summer was able to convince him to stay... but Raven had expected that.

Tai... she hoped Tai at least understood, even if he disagreed. If he didn't... if he didn't, then they'd completely misjudged each other, and that dream she'd been chasing on Patch had been doomed from the start. That possibility, that she'd gotten out before the inevitable pain to all of them would have been worse, was a hollow comfort around the ache in her heart.

But Summer? Her best friend, her leader, the one who knew her best? How could she not understand?

Raven shook those thoughts off before replying, taking the flask to her mouth as she did so. "Have you got a plan to defeat her yet?"

"Yes."

Raven's eyes went wide and she almost dropped her bottle. "You do?!" she asked joyfully as hope unlooked-for sprung within her chest like a fertile garden shooting forth after a long winter. "That's incredible! How?"

"I've meditated on the nature of Salem's curse for some time now," she began, "and I think I've discovered her weakness. No, not a weakness per se, but an escape clause."

"Call it whatever you want, just tell me what it is," Raven asked in excitement, her alcohol forgotten.

"'For as long as this world turns, you shall walk its face. You must learn the importance of life and death. Only then may you rest,'" Summer quoted before continuing. "Salem's final end is predicated on her admitting that she was wrong and learning to let go. Therefore, we must confront her and convince her of the error of her ways."

The fertile garden was killed by a bitter frost that heralded the coming of a renewed snowfall. Raven stopped, looked at her bottle, and dived on in again. The sound of her drinking was loud and echoing, like a horse.

"Rae?" asked Summer worriedly, stopping and turning.

The black-maned woman looked up into her flask with desperate eyes as the last beads of intoxicant fell out. She made a whining noise, and capped the flask before stowing it in her obi, from which she drew a second flask. The cap came off from that.

"Raven!"

After a swig from the new bottle she finally replied, her voice wracked with a despair most foul. "That is not a plan!" she cried. "That isn't even a concept! Why… why… why do you…?"

"Calm down," Summer said soothingly, her bearing shifting to the well-practiced one of a comforting parent. Again, Raven squashed the thoughts that came unbidden.. "And stop drinking, Raven. You're not your brother."

"You're right," Raven agreed, shoulders sagging slightly, "and I'm not you either. I'm just me, and that's not good enough." Her voice dropped as she began walking again, this time at a brisk pace and with longer strides, leaving the shorter woman behind. "It's never good enough," she murmured to herself.

"Don't be silly, Raven!" Summer argued as she hurried to catch up. "You're the strongest of us; you always were."

"'Strong'?" Raven echoed. She shook her head. "In fighting, maybe, Summer, but that's all I am. And if that's all I am, and I'm not strong _enough_, then what good am I?"

The bandit princess couldn't deal with this, not right now. With a bounce in her step and a shift in form, she took to the skies.

Summer watched despairingly as the raven took flight.

"It was always good enough for us."

* * *

Summer walked through the forest with a lightness in her step that made sure that she would not be heard. She wore white though, so she would be seen if illuminated by any light in the dark. It might have taken something creative on her part to get into the bandit camp.

Might have, but when the outer sentries spotted her, they merely bowed their heads in reverence and tried to avoid her gaze. It made her… uncomfortable. Yes, it made it so that she would be able to get in to see Raven easier, but it just did not feel right to her.

That feeling continued when she reached the outer edge of the camp, and people parted to allow her passage without any getting in her way. They were scared of her, or else respected her far too much consider crossing her… literally. They were literally avoiding crossing her path.

How did Raven deal with that all the time? She really must have been strong to keep her composure through all of it. Summer felt like she was going to slide right out of her skin from discomfort.

She looked at one person in particular though, and her eyes caught his, freezing him in place. "Excuse me," she said with gentle earnestness, "can you tell me where Raven Branwen is?"

"She's over in that tent over there, your grace, the one with the red door flap," he said in a reverential voice tinged with fear.

"Thank you," she said with what she hoped was a grateful smile.

She continued on and soon found the tent in question. She stood at its threshold, and her nose curled at the smell. Alcohol, even out here she could smell it, and her heart dropped.

_Oh, Raven, have I hurt you so?_ she lamented in her mind.

Not knowing what to do, she curled her small hand into a fist and rapped one of the tent's wooden poles.

"Come in!" came Raven's voice.

Summer gave one last look around, seeing that everyone else had moved at least a hundred paces away, and pushed the curtain aside to enter with a heavy heart. Raven was there, and she was looking at her, her hands were free of drink. She didn't seem surprised, just exhausted.

"Hello again," said Summer with a smile she hoped wouldn't look too awkward.

Raven waved to a nearby pillow. "Here, take a seat. Not like I can ditch you again."

"Thank you," Summer said before gently sitting down on the offered pillow, legs together and folded in front of her in a way that was definitely too awkward.

They were quiet for a long moment, neither looking at the other. Then Raven broke the silence. "They're composing a song about you, you know?"

"Really?" asked Summer, with the heat of surprise coming to her cheeks.

"Yep."

"Hope it's more operatic ballad than drunken shanty," she joked with a hollow laugh.

"Nah, you don't have to worry about it," Raven said with a thin smile. "I decided not to contribute anything."

Those words hit Summer like a sledgehammer.

"So," Raven said, her voice conversational, "what did you want to talk about?"

Summer felt a little bit of steel slipping into her spine at the change in tone. She had to do this, come what may, she needed to do this. She needed to rescue her friend.

"We want you to come back," Summer said simply.

"I thought so," Raven said with a sigh. "I was going to flatly deny you, but why not ask a question first. Do you really mean 'we,' or do you mean 'you'?"

"I mean us. I miss you, Qrow's been drinking more than usual, Tai's inconsolable, and-"

"Stop lying, Summer," Raven cut in.

"E-excuse me?" Summer sputtered.

"Stop. Lying," Raven repeated, one eyebrow cocked mockingly. "You've always been terrible at it."

"I am not lying!" Summer defended herself hotly.

"Puh-lease. You're lying right now, about lying, fittingly enough," Raven told her with a note of dark humor.

"How could you possibly know whether or not I'm lying?" asked Summer with what she hoped was an appropriate amount of hostility to make Raven back off.

"Summer, I can turn into a bird, and make portals," Raven deadpanned. "I've seen what you're all like, now that I'm gone."

"Have you now?" Summer asked with a raised eyebrow, even while her thoughts drifted elsewhere. _I thought I saw you, but why didn't you come down and talk then?_

Raven nodded. "The perfect happy little family, complete with the eccentric uncle. I could not, would not, break that up for the world."

Summer's eyes dipped. "You don't see them at night. You don't see Tai crying himself to sleep…"

"When he has you to comfort him," Raven finished, her voice thankful and appreciative and admiring. There was no heat, no jealousy, no _fire_, no strong emotions of any kind. She sounded like a runner who had lost a race, conceded like a good sport, and then gone home for fish and chips.

Summer found it all very… disturbing. No, more than that, she was repulsed by it. There was something wrong. This wasn't Raven Branwen.

Then she saw it, in the corner of her eyes, just a glimpse. Raven was good at hiding her emotions, but they always shone through. She was hurting; she was in pain, more deeply and more truly than she had ever been before in her life.

"Raven…" she trailed off, searching for the right words.

"If that's all you came for," Raven said, reaching for where her sword leaned against a small crate that was doubling as a table, "I should get you home. Unless you have some other business in the area?"

"I'm not leaving yet," Summer declared defiantly.

Raven paused, turning to look at her with eyes full of fear and wonder. Then a note of humor. "Heh, still the same old Summer. Utterly indomitable."

"I am?" Summer asked with a grimace. "Raven, you are unstoppable. You've always been unstoppable. I refuse to accept you just throwing me out."

Raven snorted, and she gestured around them. "Summer, this is my home. Of course I can just throw you out."

Summer barked a harsh laugh in reply, it sounded strange and alien on her lips, like a bizarre imitation of cruelty by someone who could not even swat a fly. "This is not your home, Raven. Patch is your home. This is just-"

"The people who raised me, the way of life I grew up with," Raven interrupted. "Patch was a dream, and I'm tired of chasing dreams. This is where I belong."

"If you really believe that, then why are you so miserable?" asked Summer. "Why are you hurting yourself like this? Why aren't you _fighting?_"

"Did… you see what we did out there today?" Raven asked, arching an eyebrow.

"You know what I mean," Summer said. "You wanted to be top of the class in combat course, you fought for it. You wanted Tai, you fought for him when I was too scared to. You wanted answers, you fought for that too. What happened?"

"You know what happened! You were there!"

"You keep _saying_ that as if I'm supposed to understand it!" Summer said desperately.

"Because you should," Raven shot back. "And if you don't," she added softly, "I guess you never really knew me after all."

"Maybe not," Summer admitted, her eyes downcast in despair, but then they rose again in defiance. "But I guess that just means I'm not going to know when to give up on you."

Raven blinked. "What? Since when is ignorance a strength?"

"Anything can be turned into an advantage if you know how to look at it," explained Summer with a smile she hoped wouldn't come off as cocky.

Raven shook her head though, as if trying to force some thought from her mind. "I can't. Summer, you… Salem can't be killed, and as for your grand plan for her? How do you expect to convince her if you can't even convince me?"

"That still has yet to be decided," Summer reminded her.

Raven's eyes became downcast. "Summer… I can't fight, not against Salem, and not for Ozpin." She looked up, eyes hard. "You already know what I gave up to leave that fight behind. Besides, there's no place for me in Patch, not anymore. Not with you there."

"I-" Summer's voice died in her throat, and she lowered her eyes. "I'm sorry. He- he was hurting, and-"

"Don't apologize, Summer," Raven said firmly. "Not for that. It's better this way. I see that now."

"No, it isn't! You could still come back, take your place, be part of the family! Let Yang know her real mom, help raise Ruby."

"Me?" Raven snorted. "Part of that? Do you really see me playing happy little homemaker? I'm a _bandit_, Summer. I steal and murder just to survive, and more for fun. They know who their real mom is, and it's you. There's no way I could ever raise either of your girls right, especially not Ruby and definitely not Yang."

"You never know until you try," Summer said, but even to her ears it sounded weak and pleading. She'd turned that pithy line into her own philosophy, ever since she'd let her fear keep her from pursuing the man she loved and sworn never to let fear rule her again. Now? Now, she couldn't even use it to help the very woman who had inspired her to take it to heart. Now, it held no more weight than when she'd spouted it off ignorantly after Team STRQ had first been formed. "They deserve that at least."

"And you want us to gamble with their lives on that?" asked Raven even as outrage began to leak into her voice, as if her compatriot had just suggested that the children play with Grimm. Then she continued in a more explanatory tone, but the indignation was still there, lurking beneath the surface. "Besides, I was never some pure, chaste maiden full of virtue like you. I lived a hard life; I was... experienced, you could say. Yang's not the first child I've had. She's just the first to live to see her first birthday. If she thanks me for anything, it should be for handing her off to a mother with a better survival rate."

"Oh, Raven…" Summer began, and her voice was heartbroken, realizing for the first time just how deeply her friend had been scarred and broken.

_Friend? What kind of friend am I if I'm so blind?_

Before Summer could finish her sentence, though, Raven lashed out like a coiled snake. "Don't you pity me!"

Her face was twisted into a snarl of rage and hate. Whether it was directed at the one in front of her, at herself, or in a formless mass emanating outwards in all directions at once, none could say. The emotion simply was, eating away at all it touched like the necrotic venom of a viper.

Almost as soon as it had arrived though, it passed. And with its passing, a look of shame and humiliation came upon Raven. Summer's expression was calm and understanding, but the black-haired woman hid her face from it, as if the mere sight of it was painful. Such it was that she got up with a heavy sigh, picked up her sword, and sliced a swirling hole in reality.

"Go home, Summer," Raven began, her voice broken. "And tell Tai… tell him I still love him."

Summer stood up, but did not advance into the portal. Her stance was strong, resolute, immobile. "Tell him yourself," she said, and then smiled. "I bet if you did, he'd take you back in a heartbeat."

"You'd lose that bet," replied Raven, still shielding her face from those mirror eyes.

"Would I? He always loved you more; I'm just the runner-up."

It… hurt to say it, but it was the truth. As much as Summer loved Tai, as much as she knew he loved her… Raven was the one first in his heart, and she knew it. Raven finally turned to look at Summer, her face… almost resigned.

"Yes, you would," Raven said, her voice quiet but firm. "Just because he made a mistake once doesn't mean he'll make it again."

"'Mistake'? 'Mistake'?!" Summer sputtered, outraged. "Choosing you was _not_ a mistake!"

Raven snorted. "Even if that were true… you really think he'd do that to you? Toss you aside like that? Tai's too good a man to do that." At that point, her voice dropped so low, Summer could barely hear her. "Too good a man for me."

"He wouldn't be tossing me aside," Summer insisted, back straight. "I'd be stepping aside."

A scoff escaped Raven's lips like a sneezing dog as she sneered. "Of course you would, Little Miss Perfect, but do you really think I'd let you? You think Qrow or Tai would? I told you, there's no place for me on Patch."

"I-"

"Just… go home," Raven repeated. She sounded so… so _tired_. "Go back to your daughters. Raise them well. Go back to your husband. Keep him happy. And remember, if you break his heart, I'll break your legs."

Defeat seemed to rear its ugly head in Summer's heart, but more than that was disgust and anger. Raven had become… something terrible, something alien. And though Raven called her Little Miss Perfect, she knew her old teammate was wrong. She felt anger and hate and spite, just like anyone else; she just kept those demons locked up better.

And in that moment of weakness, one of those demons escaped its pen.

"Don't worry, I won't," Summer said, a touch of spite in her voice as she turned towards the still swirling portal. "You already did."

At that, the leader of Team STRQ stepped through the portal, and it finally collapsed. When it did, so too did Raven. Lying there on the ground, she looked like a puppet with its strings cut. Nevertheless, she still found the strength to inch one heavy hand behind her obi and draw forth a simple silver flask.

Raven didn't stop drinking until the darkness took her.

* * *

Summer stepped onto the green grass of Patch, and the demon of her hate slinked back to some dark corner of its cage, even as the door closed behind it. With that, she dropped to her knees and looked up into the sunny sky. Her whole body was twisted into an effigy of despair, and the collapsing of the portal behind her only intensified it.

What she had said… what she had done… she wished that she could take it all back. Those cruel words spoken in anger… she knew she would be suffering for them for the rest of her days. No, she would get off easy with mere guilt. The real victims would be Tai, and Qrow, and Ruby, and Yang, and… and Raven. Poor, poor Raven.

"Forgive me, Raven," she sobbed. "Please forgive me."

She knelt there for a time, stewing in her own spiraling depression, but then, on the horizon, she saw a lock of blonde hair and in it found new strength. She wasn't on her own; she never truly was. She was the leader of Team STRQ, Maiden of Spring, and Huntress of Beacon. She did not have the luxury or privilege of grief. Strength would have to be her byword, now doubly so.

So it was that with great effort she stood up, and the steel of responsibility entered into her body. For it was in her burdens that she found power, and what great power indeed they held. For her husband, for her family, for life itself, she would bear all the terrors of the world. She could not break - she _would_ not break - even in the depths of despair.

She walked then through the brush, until presently she exited out onto the lawn cleared around the two-storey log cabin that was her home. There was a garden out front, and Taiyang was working in it. Weeds were being pulled, and the flowers were blooming greatly.

Next to him in a cradle was Ruby, sleeping softly. Her face was at rest, and in it, all things seemed good. None there would seek to disturb her slumber, and indeed, none could, for she slept as the mountains do.

Taiyang seemed to notice her and stood up to face her as she approached, greeting her with a broad smile. "Hey, Sum, you're back early. What happened?"

_"Go home, Summer," Raven began, her voice broken. "And tell Tai… tell him I still love him."_

She opened her mouth, but Raven's message died in her throat as her eyes gazed on that easy smile. That… rare, precious smile. "...Nothing, Tai," she said finally. "Just… finished up sooner than I expected."

Suddenly, the door flung open, and a bundle of lightning made flesh bounced out the door to run towards her. "Mommy! Mommy!" cried Yang Xiao Long with every fiber of joy her tiny body could produce. "You're home!"

On instinct, Summer swooped down to scoop her up into her arms. Tears from earlier still lingered on her face, and fresh ones glistened at the corners of her eyes. She knew her daughter - _Raven's_ daughter - would see them.

And indeed, she did.

"Mom, what's wrong? You're crying."

"Nothing, little dragon, nothing's wrong," Summer lied with the ease of a parent trying to comfort their child's concerns. "These are… tears of joy at seeing you again."

It was the truth. It was more true then Yang would ever be able to comprehend until the day she bore children of her own. It was also a lie. It hurt to realize she was a thief, one who had committed a theft so complete of something so precious from her best friend that everyone in the world believed that _this_ was the right and natural state of the world.

But…

She gazed at the bundle of joy in her arms.

_Don't you worry, Yang,_ she promised. _I'll always be here for you. And someday, I'm sure, so will your mother._


	3. Chapter 3

**A Stark Divide: Act III: Red Like Roses**

* * *

Twigs and leaves crunched underfoot as the young woman ran through the forest, the hooded cloak she wore trailing behind her. She gasped for breath as she struggled to maintain speed. The Grimm were close, she could almost feel them gaining on her. The weapon she clutched in her sweaty hands, long and unwieldy for most but one she normally gripped with a familiar ease, felt unnaturally heavy tonight. She _should_ turn and fight. She _should_ face them down. She should… she should...

...but she so very much did not want to die.

She burst out into a clearing, one miraculously devoid of Grimm. Hope gave her a surge of energy, and she began pumping her legs even faster. As she did, though, her footing betrayed her, and she stumbled to her hands and knees.

Gasping desperately, she took a moment to recover, then rolled over to a sitting position. She brought her weapon up shakily.

So. This was it, then. This was how she died.

Resisting the urge to shrink back and close her eyes, she raised her weapon and tried to get a bead on the Alpha Beowolf as it leapt into the air, lunging for her.

She never got the chance to shoot, as a figure blurred overhead from behind her, impacting the Alpha and sending it flying back. Her rescuer dispatched the Alpha quickly and dove into the pack that followed it mercilessly, plowing through the Grimm through main force alone, blade flashing with lethal strokes.

As the last Grimm fell, her rescuer sheathed her sword again. Walking toward her, the other woman called out, her voice almost teasing, "What's the matter, Summer? Losing your touch?" As she got closer, though, the other woman frowned. "Wait. You're not Summer."

"N-no," she stammered. "I-I'm... Robin Scheer." After a long moment under the woman's red-eyed stare, she asked hopefully, "You- you knew Summer Rose?"

The woman's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean, 'knew'?"

* * *

Raven calmly poured more tea into her guest's cup. Outside, she was calm, cool, and collected. Inside her mind, she was a raging tempest of emotions as she processed the tale she had been told.

Summer Rose, dead? No, it was impossible; it couldn't be true. The very idea of it was inconceivable, and yet…

Raven looked up again at Robin and saw her projecting a tiny spiral of wind above her palm. A red flame was coming out of each eye like the wings of a hawk. Summer had done the same to show off to little Yang just scant days after the babe's birth. Had she done so again? Had Summer kept the secret of Maidenhood to herself and Tai, or had it been a source of wonder for her daughters as well? If the decision had rested on a knife's edge, it would now never be decided.

And as she looked, Raven realized that it would never be decided, because Summer was… Summer was… Summer was…

She couldn't even bear to think it. Now that she knew for sure, she could not bear the thought. It was no longer a source of bemusement at such a ludicrous statement, but a terrible reality as indomitable as she had been in life.

She would bury those feelings deep inside her and put on a stern face, like _she_ would have done. For herself, for her tribe, for her family, and now, for Robin.

Who was she? She claimed to be no one, but… but Summer had died protecting her. She had given her life so that this "Robin" may live. What made her so important?

It wasn't just the circumstances surrounding her seizure of Maidenhood either. She had evidently decided that fighting for Ozpin was a fool's game, and thus, she ran. It was a wise move, in Raven's opinion, but it was more than a little strange that she would run to the Branwen tribe. She could have hidden anywhere on Remnant, and yet, she chose to go to a tribe of bandits that happened to be led by Summer's old compatriot.

Why? Had Summer said something to her in her dying breath? Was the whole thing preplanned by the two together?

No, it couldn't have been preplanned. Summer adored her family too much for that. She loved Taiyang more deeply than any woman had ever loved a man, and her daughters, she gave everything for. In turn, Ruby and Yang mirrored her in every way they could, and Tai would dote upon her as if she were a goddess.

They were a binary star system, Summer and her family, revolving around each other for as long the universe may exist.

So it had to have been more of a snap decision. Summer had to have saved Robin for a reason and sent her to Raven for a reason. This had to have meant something. It couldn't just be a pointless death!

So… so she would honor her leader's final duty, and she would protect Robin Scheer from the world.

And who knows? It might even be fun. If nothing else, Robin understood the value of discretion over valor.

"So, you want to leave behind Ozpin's little spat with Salem?" asked Raven knowingly.

Robin nodded. "Yes."

"And you thought the best way to do that was to join a group of bandits?" the black-haired woman continued.

"Not just any group of bandits," Robin said with what could only be described as starry-eyed wonder. "This is the Branwen Tribe, the most feared bandit tribe in all of Anima, and sometimes Menagerie."

Raven chuckled. "Heh, that _was_ a wild night."

"You do whatever you want, take whatever you want, and no one can stop you," Robin continued unabated.

"No one's _bothered_ to stop us," Raven corrected pointedly.

"Same thing," Robin said with a dismissive shrug. "Effectively, anyways."

"No, it's not," Raven insisted. "In one scenario, we can be as bold and as brash as we want to, but in the other, we have to remain low and hidden."

"I understand," the younger woman said, but something in her voice told Raven she really didn't.

"We will have to see about what chores you can do around the camp," the black-maned bandit reasoned. "Everyone pulls their weight, after all."

"Why not thieving and fighting?" offered Robin.

A flash of joy pulsed through Raven's body that she wouldn't need to clean up tea from her table from a spit take, which was what would have happened had anything been in her mouth, but instead, all she did was regard Robin with more interest than before.

"Excuse me?" she asked.

"Thieving and fighting," repeated Robin. "I have experience with both, and I'm not so bad, if I do say so myself."

Inside her head, Raven boggled. What Robin was saying went against everything she knew a Maiden to be. Maidens were chaste, pure of heart, and only willing to fight in defense of themselves and others. A paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all, that was what a Maiden was, what Summer had been.

But Robin was not Summer. She never would be, never could be, Summer. All she could ever be was herself, and that was a lesson Summer had taught to Raven time and time again.

"Very well," Raven relented, and a smile spread across Robin's face. "Let's see what you can do."

* * *

"Oof!" Robin cried out as she hit the dirt again. Raven's lieutenant stood over her, her expression barely amused.

"Perhaps you need a less skilled partner to test your skills against," the black-haired bandit suggested, and then she looked over to one of the smaller shapes in the camp. "Boy! Boy, come over here."

Robin got up and dusted herself off as the lieutenant backed off and the boy came up to the sandy fighting pit. He must have only been around ten or twelve, and most of his head was covered in bandages.

"Uh, are you sure he should be walking?" asked Robin unsurely.

"He's strong enough to bear it," replied Raven evenly. "Now, begin!"

Robin shrugged and went for a punch that would hopefully knock this kid flat on his butt and end this match quickly. To her shock, though, she missed, and the boy grappled her arm to bring her to the ground. As she tried to get up, his arms came around her neck, and then, suddenly and without foreknowledge, she saw her world go dark.

* * *

Robin awoke on one of the mats inside her tent, and as she slowly stirred, she noticed through one of the holes in it that the sun had changed position.

"What hit me?" she asked aloud, mouth tasting of cotton.

"Sleeper hold," came the concise reply from Raven, who parted the flap at the end of the small shelter to reveal her stern countenance.

"Those are real?" asked Robin with wide eyes.

"After a fashion," Raven replied with a verbal shrug that didn't quite reach her shoulders. "I will, of course, teach you how to use it."

"Great!" said Robin cheerily. "I can't wait to pay that kid back for what he did."

"The boy performed exactly as he was trained to," Raven said matter-of-factly. "Hopefully, once you have been trained, you will be able to avoid the same trap again."

"Right, right," Robin agreed. "I can do it. When do we start?"

"Right now," said Raven as she exited the flap again.

"Oh, okay," muttered Robin in surprise as she followed, exiting the tent to find Raven and her lieutenant standing right outside barely two strides away.

"To start, you'll want to come up behind your opponent, and then put your arm around their neck, like so," began Raven, demonstrating upon her lieutenant as she narrated.

"Is this safe?" asked Robin as she realized that Raven would likely go through the whole process.

"I'm strong enough to bear it," said the lieutenant sternly.

"Oh, okay, carry on then," said Robin with a shrug.

The lieutenant ended up dropping to the ground in an unconscious heap, but Robin thought she got the gist of it. Raven thus quizzed her on the finer points of the technique while they waited for the lieutenant to wake up. She did so after about twenty minutes, and the new Spring Maiden was able to practice on a live opponent.

It took much time and many, many practice sessions, but eventually, Raven pronounced her sufficiently proficient in non-lethal combat that she was deemed ready for a more advanced mission. It seemed like a bit of a jump to Robin, but the bandit leader assured her that she knew everything she needed to. No blood would be spilt on this mission.

* * *

Robin Scheer was not a good woman, and she knew it. To be fair, she didn't really believe in such abstract concepts as "good" and "evil." Remnant was a harsh and unforgiving world, one which would chew you up and spit you out, if you were lucky.

It was a world in which those with power - be it political, financial, or raw, in your face, blow your head off power - prospered and those without suffered. It was a lesson she had been in the middle of learning the hard way - again - when she met Summer Rose.

The councils had power and guarded it jealously. They threatened punishment for anyone who did not submit to them and pay tribute; calling it "taxes" didn't change that. If you were going to extort someone, Robin had thought, why not at least be honest about it?

Her latest bit of trouble had involved the bandit group she had been working with. She'd thought to make a tidy side profit and gotten caught. She'd been punished for her impudence, tortured, but it turned out to her advantage in the end, as it meant she was inside a well-constructed jail cell when the Grimm overran the abandoned village they had been squatting in.

Then Summer Rose came and dispatched the Grimm with ease. When she found Robin locked up, she saw a helpless prisoner in need of rescue. Which, technically, _was_ accurate, after a fashion. Robin, on the other hand, only saw an easy mark.

Raven, though… Raven was different. She knew how the world worked. Not only that, she _embraced_ it. Where Summer - and the rest of Ozpin's band of idealists - had tried to teach her philosophy and meditation, Raven taught her practical skills: how to fight, how to survive. How someone as naive as Summer Rose could be held in such high esteem by someone like Raven Branwen was a mystery to Robin.

"Head in the moment, Robin," the bandit leader chided softly as she continued looking through her binoculars at the walled village ahead of them.

Robin started at Raven's words, then nodded. "Yes, Raven." It was good advice, after all.

"Just remember," Raven reminded her, "we have to be stealthy and fast. If they figure out what we came here for, it becomes useless a lot sooner."

"Right, in and out," Robin paraphrased.

"In and out, you got it," Raven confirmed, putting the binoculars down before stuffing them in their pouch. "Come on, let's go."

It was more than a mile hike between their vantage point and the field outside the village wall, but the last leg of their journey thankfully passed without incident. Raven told her what would happen, and she listened intently. She wouldn't screw this up.

As it happened, she didn't screw it up. She ran the distance, two steps behind Raven, and when the bandit queen turned and dropped down into a crouch just before the wall, cupping her hands, Robin stepped into the boost without even breaking stride, landing on the other side of the wall with only a mild stumble. Easy peasy. Raven herself landed perfectly beside her but a moment later.

Unseen, unnoticed, and unremarked upon, they moved through the sleeping village until they reached a mid-sized, two-storey wooden building next to the main road of the settlement.

"Blast," cursed Raven under her breath.

"What's the issue?" asked Robin.

"There's an alarm," the black-haired woman said with a gesture at something on the building Robin couldn't quite make out. "We'll have to cut the power, and it looks like there's a powerline right above us. Can you do that?"

Robin gave a little salute to Raven. "You can count on me."

"Quietly," Raven repeated as Robin sneaked away.

It was child's play for someone like Robin to find the generator in a village like this while following the line. It was a dust generator that seemed hooked into the majority of homes in the settlement, not a hydroelectric or geothermal generator that could have given her issues. No, the only issue came from the guard posted near the chain-link fence surrounding it.

She was in the shadows then, unseen and unlooked for. His back was turned to her as well. There was simply no way that he could respond in time if she were to come up behind him. It would be all too easy to put even a big man like him down with a sleeper hold. Certainly, that was what Raven expected of her, and certainly, the boy would have done so, but she wasn't the weak sop that some in the tribe thought her to be. The hold would work, yes, but it would take time, and Robin had a knife.

She reached into her boot and drew forth from it a long, wicked stiletto, the thin blade glinting like the eyes of a big cat in the night air. She then moved softly, silently, and swiftly to stand behind her prey. It took but a moment, but a quick slash did the job all the same.

The guard reached up involuntarily to his neck as the cutting open of arteries, vocal cords, and throat registered. Robin reached up and yanked him back by his shirt collar. He came crashing to the ground then, his aura sputtering in a vain attempt to protect and heal his body that was far too late.

_What a rush!_ thought Robin gleefully as she watched the guard dying on the ground, and he _was_ dying. She knew it, and as she looked into his eyes, she knew that he knew it too. This big strong man had been brought low to this pathetic state by her, because she was powerful and he was not. _That_ was what brought her pleasure.

Killing was nothing to her; she did that just to survive. Sadism was a waste of time that would get you killed in the wild. But power? Oh, she adored power, because with power, she could do anything she wanted, and when she had more power than other people, she could do anything she wanted _to_ them without fear.

Or not.

She strode over to the dust generator then and shut off the connection to the target building, breaking it in the process. The dying man was left forgotten on the ground. Robin had power, after all, and she really didn't need to see him pass on into whatever afterlife there was. Ultimately, it didn't matter, just like him, unlike her.

When she returned to Raven's position, the woman had already moved on to begin breaking into the building. Robin came up behind her just in time to see her successfully pick the lock. They entered without sound or fuss.

Raven smiled. "And just like that, we're in like Flynn."

Robin blinked in confusion at the very strange and absurd line. "What?"

Raven sighed in a way that sounded burdened by loss. "Never mind."

They made their way through the building, past dark desks and chairs, until they came to a door marked as the regional manager's office. The door was locked there as well, but Robin was able to easily pick it. So it was that they came into the office, and Raven ignored the large desk and walked over to the safe set in the wall, placing one keen ear to the door and fiddling with the controls.

"You can crack a safe?" asked Robin incredulously.

"I've gotten pretty good at it over the last few years, yes," said Raven. "Especially since I got a pretty good look at the combination already."

Robin blinked. "How…"

There was a bright flash, and suddenly, light was pouring in from the windows. Robin gasped, and an alarm could be heard going up from somewhere in the village. The two of them instinctively crouched down where they stood, and after a half-second delay, Robin quickly scurried around the desk and under it. Before either of them could ask what was going on, a loud, booming voice over a megaphone explained.

_"Attention, bandit scum!"_

"I think he means us," deadpanned Raven, not bothering to stop her task.

_"We were going to try to capture you, but then we saw what you did to poor Jimmy, and now, we're not feeling so generous."_

Raven paused and turned to glare at Robin. "What did you do?!"

"It was just a little cut to the neck!" sputtered Robin, not feeling nearly so powerful now.

"You killed someone?!" Raven bellowed. "I told you to do things quietly!"

_"Now, there will be no quarter given. You will die as he died, living only long enough to point at your killers."_

It was then that bullets began to bombard the reinforced windows and walls of the building, causing a multiplicity of cracks to appear on their surface.

"Okay! Okay! I think I can fix this!" stammered Robin as red wings of fire sprung from her eyes and she tried to call her magic forth.

"Don't bother," barked Raven, going back to her task.

The windows collapsed then, and bullets began to fill the room. Shrapnel and ricochets bounced about, impacting against aura, and Robin screamed. Raven grew even more focused as the light of her soul became ever more visible in its battering.

Then, suddenly, the door of the safe clicked open, and Raven wrenched it aside. She reached inside and collected a series of files. She drew forth her sword then, and slashed it through the air.

Robin gasped in shock at the tear in reality that was left in the wake of Raven's sword, but she was not given any chance to contemplate it.

"Get in!" yelled Raven, even as her aura collapsed and stray bullets began to bounce off her armor. One found a weak spot, and there was a puff of red in the air.

In a panic, Robin jumped through, and Raven followed soon after.

* * *

This… had not been what Raven was expecting. Only being able to pull off a few convoy raids with the information from the company's regional headquarters was to be expected, even if it wasn't exactly desirable. Having to heal after being shot was also to be expected, even something to joke about with the boy. What had _not_ been expected was Robin's recklessness, nor how slow and painful it was to see any sort of improvement with her, even months after her colossal screw up.

_Summer had issues at first too,_ thought Raven as she advanced on her command tent where Robin was then. _None of those issues were anything that she didn't correct quickly, though, and never even once was she anything but the grandest pillar of morality. Robin is an insolent child compared to her. A child? The boy is a child too, and he would never do what she had done, and so unskillfully as well. She still can't even control her powers in combat._

She entered the tent and saw Robin engrossed in fletching some arrows for her bowstaff. She turned her head and took notice of Raven. She seemed happy to see her then.

"Oh! Raven! How are you today?" she asked before going back to fletching.

"Fine," Raven replied with an edge. "Last of the bandages came off last night."

"Good to hear. Sorry about that Deathstalker sting, but I got it in the end," she said cheerfully.

"Yes, you did," said Raven in that same tone. The Grimm never should have gotten that close, and the sting had hurt… a lot, but Robin did eventually kill the fell beast. It was at least better than the previous showing that had injured her.

"Hey, Raven, I just wanted to thank you," said Robin in an appreciative tone.

"For what?" asked Raven, silently hoping that Robin would give her a reason not to throw her out. Summer had saved her, yes, but many within the tribe believed her to be hopeless. And while Raven wasn't ready to give up quite yet, not on her leader's last charge, she was definitely leaning towards that. Perhaps it would be better to just give her the name of a plastic surgeon in Mistral and send her on her way.

"For helping me get this great life," she answered.

Raven blinked at Robin's words. Even the bandit leader only was in this life because she had no choice. The younger woman's sentiment seemed rather strange.

"I mean, it's certainly better than whatever life Ozpin and his cronies had planned for me," she continued.

_Ah,_ thought Raven. _Now things make total sense. Only the ignorant and the indomitable are fit for that._

Unbidden, Summer's image came to Raven's mind, and if possible, she was even more of the warrior of legend than she had been when Raven had last seen her… now that she had gone to join her fellows in the halls of eternal glory. Far too soon was she taken there. Far too soon was she gone when the world needed her more and more with each passing day.

So busy was Raven, in fact, dealing with the horrors of the world, that she had never even spared a moment to grieve over the loss of her beloved friend. She could only imagine the horror that was going on in the Xiao Long family. Summer's husband Taiyang, and her daughters Yang and Ruby. What were they going through at that moment? Even if Raven could spare the time, she dared not look.

Robin pressed on, heedless of the inner turmoil of the Branwen Tribe's chief. "I mean, some of the things they told me were just complete nonsense. Like, I tell them I can't fight in their war, and they tell me, 'you never know until you try.' Can you believe that?"

_"There's no way a team like this can work out!" Raven declared after initiation._

_"You never know until you try," replied newly-minted team leader Summer Rose._

Raven felt her blood run cold as she turned from contemplating the wall to look at the back of Robin's head with wide eyes.

"That's the sort of thing you tell a child," she continued.

Unconsciously, Raven's hand dropped to her sword's hilt.

"Or a patsy, or a rube, or some fool…"

Raven silently drew forth her odachi as she lightly walked forward.

"Or maybe all of the above. Anyway, I'm not any of those things, I'm no easy mark, so I just wanted to thank you, Raven, for taking me under your wing, and…"

The black-maned woman brought her sword down in a flash of red, and Robin's headless body flopped to the floor.

Raven was breathing heavily in the aftermath, struggling to get some control.

"...You bitch," she let out. "You absolute waste of space. Summer Rose was the best of us, and you took her from the world! You vile, deplorable monster!"

She was ranting then, screaming at a dead body that would not, could not, ever reply. "She's dead, and it's all your fault! You are not worthy of her power! It wasn't yours, you stole it! Thief! Coward! Traitor..."

Raven glanced up at that moment and saw herself reflected in a small mirror nearby, and lo, what she saw brought her to her knees. What she gazed upon were the red wings of Spring coming from her eyes. The power had passed to her.

"No… no!" Raven yelled, tears beginning to form in her eyes. "Please, no! I'm too old! I'm not worthy! I can't replace her! No one can replace her…"

The bandit collapsed onto her elbows then. As she fell, the word "no" could be heard repeated over and over. She stayed in that state for a time, doubled over in despair, until she sensed a familiar presence with her aura.

Steeling herself, she got back to her knees and turned to find the boy looking at her with his one visible eye wide.

Raven smiled a strange sort of smile. "Hello… want to learn how to dig a grave?"

* * *

Hours later, Raven placed the last bit of sod onto the disturbed ground where it once lay. When she did so, the boy reached over with his own shovel to pat it down. After they had done this thing, far from camp, they stood in silence for a time, leaning on the shafts of their shovels.

Eventually, Raven sensed something, and spoke. "You have something to say, boy?"

The boy's voice was slow and halting, far more careful than needed. "You... when you... who was Summer?"

"Summer was…" Raven paused then, searching for the right words to describe someone so beyond the ken of mortal man, eventually deciding on what she felt was most truthful. "The best of us. The best life on this dustball had to offer. You would have liked her; everyone did."

The boy's good eye blinked then, seemingly surprised. "I see."

Raven shook her head and corrected the one who had brought her out of the bottle. "No, you don't, but you should have. I should have taken you to her, not taken you with me. It was cruel, and selfish, and I wasn't thinking straight."

Her words were a lamentation then, filled with regret.

"Maybe if you had been there, she wouldn't have gone out that day, wouldn't have run into this…" she paused again and gestured at the ground; no words of disgust were enough. "Well, I suppose it's the worms' problem now."

"...given the choice," the boy said as he looked at her, "I think I would still have liked to go with you."

"I don't think you would have, but we'll agree to disagree there," Raven said with a familiar smile before swinging her shovel over her shoulder. "Now, I think it's time we broke camp and moved on. There could be Grimm along soon."

"Preparations are already complete."

The pair turned and found Raven's lieutenant standing at rest. Raven had _almost_ not sensed her approach, and she felt that she should ask the boy if he had managed to sense her. Still, before that there was a matter to attend to, as the plan that had been forming in her head to safeguard herself and the tribe had finally taken shape.

"Your name is now Vernal," Raven informed her lieutenant.

The brown-haired woman nodded in assent. "Understood, ma'am."

* * *

It had been too long.

Taiyang Xiao Long had… not been in a good headspace after Summer's death. He almost hadn't even noticed his daughters disappearing until his brother-in-law returned with them in tow and laid into him over it. The one-sided brawl had devolved into the two drowning their sorrows together… but Qrow had been right.

Raven had left. Summer was… gone. But he still had his two little girls.

This morning, he knew what he had to do. Qrow understood, and he was watching the girls while Taiyang trudged down the path. He paused at the edge of the forest, just before the final stretch before the clifftop that marked his destination.

He hesitated. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath through his nose, taking in the scent of the flowers he carried.

_Time to say goodbye._

He squared his shoulders and marched up to the grave, his steps slowing as he got closer. He tried to make sense of what he saw and sank to his knees before it, onto grass that was already crushed and trampled by some other recent visitor.

There, laid carefully on the gravestone, was a fresh bouquet, resting just above the inscription.

_Summer Rose.  
Thus Kindly I Scatter_

The bouquet was made up of black roses… save for a single, solitary white rose shining starkly - defiantly - in their midst.

* * *

A/N: For the record, this was initially envisioned as a prequel to _Spark to Spark, Dust to Dust_, a _RWB__Y_/Transformers crossover already started and available on Spacebattles dot com. Transferring it to here on FFN is a very low-priority project, however, due to formatting being a PITA.


End file.
